Meta ‘disappointed’ to pause its AI plans in the EU

Tech giant Meta has paused its plans to train its large language models in the European Union based on users’ public Facebook and Instagram data following a request from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC). 

The request was made as a result of privacy concerns over the tech firm using personal data from users to train its AI models. Although, Meta claims that it is only content that people have chosen to make public and it will not be using private messages or content from accounts of Europeans that are under the age of 18. 

In a blog post published on 14 June, Meta said that it is 'disappointed' by the request and this is a step backwards for European innovation as it would only be able to offer people a second-rate experience without the local information, which is why Meta AI in Europe will be put on hold for the moment. 

The blog post said: “We remain highly confident that our approach complies with European laws and regulations. AI training is not unique to our services, and we’re more transparent than many of our industry counterparts.” 

During this period, Meta said that it will continue to work collaboratively with the DPC to provide people in Europe with the same level of AI innovation as the rest of the world and will address specific requests it has received from the Information Commissioner’s Office ahead of starting the training. 

Meta is making a number of upgrades to its AI offerings and has recently announced that it was improving its advertising suite with new generative AI tools including a new messaging tool, which is currently undergoing testing in selected regions in APAC. The announcement was made this morning at the 2024 Cannes Lions Festival. 

The language model is currently available to users in Australia, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.